Applying Principles of Landscape Design and Management to Integrate Old‐Growth Forest Enhancement and Commodity Use

Using geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis techniques, we developed a landscape design to maintain old‐growth forest remnants and integrate commodity production in the surrounding second‐growth matrix. The 4500‐ha forest landscape in northern Wisconsin contains scattered patches of old‐growth eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and northern hardwoods, predominately sugar maple (Acer saccharum). The design incorporates an old‐growth restoration zone surrounding old‐growth patches to buffer and enhance forest‐interior habitat and link nearby old‐growth remnants. This addition restores aspects of landscape patch size and structure and ecosystem juxtaposition that characterize a nearby, large, and contiguous natural old‐growth landscape. A larger secondary zone is delineated for uneven‐aged forest management. This zone provides a matrix structurally similar to the old‐growth patches but also accommodates harvesting. A larger outer zone is retained primarily in even‐aged forest of aspen (Populus tremuloides) and paper birch (Betula papyrifera), but traditional clearcutting practices are modified to partial cutting and mixed‐species rotations. This design meets limited goals of biodiversity enhancement and integrated commodity production in a landscape that will remain largely harvested. The landscape design is therefore improved not only by buffers and corridors provided to old‐growth ecosystems, but by modifying the management of the majority commodity lands matrix as well.